the unprivileged must be content. In the second place, the monopolist promotes the formation of classes among consumers, as a result of the action of monopoly price. Monopoly price means class price, whereas competitive price is uniform, and, if we may use such an expression, democratic in its action. Where we have perfect competition working, we have one uniform price charged for the same article at the same time. But monopoly price, free from the restraints of competition, is the price which will yield the largest returns. The restraint upon an increase of price comes only through a diminution of sales. We cannot go into this matter at length here, but a little reflection will show that this fact must mean class price. The price which is most profitable for one class is not the price which is most profitable for another class in a community. Consequently the monopolist attempts to find some method of dividing the community into classes, and asking of each class that price which is most profitable. This will result in a charge of a high price for those who are comparatively weak and feeble, and unable to resist imposition. In some cases, also, it will operate to establish a high price for the wealthy, and a comparatively low price for poorer people. There is no manifest unwillingness on the part of men to fleece the wealthy whenever they get a chance. The poor, even, evince this inclination, for it must by no means be supposed that in society we have to do simply with good poor men, and bad

rich men far from it. The formation of class price increases among us with the growth of monopoly. One of the best illustrations is offered by the large number of kinds of tickets which our railways are offering, in order thereby to find that price which is most profitable for each class in the community. For cities within fifty miles of Chicago, along the line of one of our great railway systems, the author has counted six different kinds of tickets, each ticket representing a class price.

There is still another way in which monopoly leads to the formation of classes, and that is through the varying treatment which monopolists accord to their customers, otherwise than in the matter of price. The general rule is that the strong are the favored, as may be seen in the discriminations made by the railways in favor of large shippers.

In conclusion, it must be said that classes in modern times have chiefly an economic and not a political basis, and that if we take any definition which we will as a guide, we must acknowledge that we have classes in the United States. We have groups of individuals who possess common characteristics. They have their own peculiar habits of body and of mind, and their own peculiar needs. The farmer has his way of looking at things, the merchant another way. The wage-earner, especially as he develops, as he is doing, class consciousness, has still other ways of doing things and viewing affairs. The chief classification in our own day is that which is caused, on

the one hand, by variations in wealth, and on the other, by a separation between the employed and the employers. All this comes about naturally, as the result of the evolution of industrial society. We have different psychical worlds, and this is brought out very clearly whenever a great strike takes place. Those who read with approval the great daily newspapers of our time have their world of ideas and interests, and this is a different world of ideas and interests from that to which those belong who read with approval the so-called labor press. If one passes from one class of newspapers to the other one finds an entire change of viewpoint, and what appears black to the one is white to the other. Those whose feelings, sympathies, and interests are the feelings, sympathies, and interests of the employing class, in reading a great New York daily, will nod their heads approvingly and say, "Yes, that is true." On the other hand, those who entertain the views of the working classes, and sympathize with them in their struggles, will read with approval the diametrically opposite utterances of the labor press. How could there be a more clearly cut social cleavage?

The effects of classes are both good and evil. They are good because they tend to develop different gifts and capacities, and to produce a rich and diversified civilization. They are evil because their natural tendency is, as they become sharply differentiated, to separate man from his fellows; and this is a bad thing. But as we shall see more

clearly as we proceed in the present book, there are forces at work which tend to bring men of different classes together. The movement is by no The ideal is that of a

means all in one direction. friendly and harmonious coöperation of classes, with the free passage from one class to another, in accordance with gifts, and the union of all classes in one social body. There are forces at work among us, and powerful forces, for the accomplishment of this ideal. It rests with us to see whether or not the forces of social union shall triumph over the forces of social disintegration.

CHAPTER V

RECENT TENDENCIES OF INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION

As we look back over the course of economic evolution, we observe certain general lines of development standing out with especial prominence. One of these is the growth and modification of the idea of property. In the earliest of the economic stages, we have seen, the idea is wanting, not merely of private, but also of public property. The idea of ownership does not exist. In the pastoral stage, ownership in movable goods is recognized, and in the agricultural stage, landownership makes its appearance. To-day the idea of property is so thoroughly ingrained in our habits of thought that it must be regarded as one of the fundamental facts in our economic life. But it has reached no final form. It is continually being modified; and we may note here some of the present tendencies along this line. In the first place, there is an increasing mass of free goods, especially free intellectual goods. Every year sees an addition to the number of great ideas that may be utilized by any one who cares to appropriate them. To be sure, we grant patents and copyrights, but they are but temporary. In a very true sense there exists a